GW2 security ingame: questions?

I've had a browse about and tried to keep up to date on the general info about GW2 having been a fan of the original GW and all its expansions.

One thing that has worried me and that has a tendency to plague other MMOs, that utilise an trading centre or auction house is, hackers and botters.

We all know the never ending war that WoW has to have against bots and botters who use them to farm crafting materials or honor or whatever other "grindy" things in game. They are a blight on the game for other players and affect the in game economy for those servers/shards usually in a negative way.

SW:TOR I believe addresses this slightly differently by making your companions go off and do all the grind professions stuff for you making you not need to go collect the stuff yourself hence less need for bots (though my knowledge of SW:TOR is very limited so there could be some niche that bots will plague that game in the future as well).

With GW2 joining the MMORPG market and also having an ingame "auction house" and the requirement to actually go out and farm materials for tradeskills surely this will open the doors for hackers & botters to jump in to destabilize the ingame economy in their favour. I am fully aware that mining nodes etc in GW2 are non-tagable as are creature mobs etc so everyone can kill/mine etc. I think however that only sidesteps the impending issue and doesn't actually deal with it.

Essentially after all this waffle my point is:

Do you feel that Arenanet are on top of the ingame security that will be required for their upcoming game? Especially as we have not heard anyone pose these questions to them at any of their show events. How do you think they will deal with the inevitable Gold Sellers plaguing the ingame capital cities?

Is there anyway to actully ask these questions of the game developers now seeing as we do not have any offical Arenanet GuildWars2 forums that I know of?

Do you feel that Arenanet are on top of the ingame security that will be required for their upcoming game? Especially as we have not heard anyone pose these questions to them at any of their show events. How do you think they will deal with the inevitable Gold Sellers plaguing the ingame capital cities?

We don't know how important gold is going to be, but we do know that it is not the only currency. For armor styles and transmutation stones, you'll need karma. That's obtained through participating in DE's. You can still bot there of course, but I'm sure they'll fight bots just as hard as blizzard is trying to.
For professions, spawns are for everyone which means: if I take it, the guy that comes 20 seconds later can also take it. So it doesn't despawn when someone takes it. You can of course only take it once within a certain amount of time. You'll still be able to bot I think, but at least you won't be annoying other players.

But bots are of course still an issue and will need to be fought.

Is there anyway to actully ask these questions of the game developers now seeing as we do not have any offical Arenanet GuildWars2 forums that I know of?

Try GW2G, they rarely post there but almost never on player questions.

One thing I was thinking about the other day, is ArenaNet need to make multi-boxing against the ToS. Since mining nodes are not tagable, someone running 10+ characters would be able to gather 10x the amount of materials compared to a legitimate player. Furthermore, it also will only cost them the 10x the box cost, not $150 a month in fees, so it makes it even more inviting for bastards.

They thought od things i never imagened.. they seem pretty creativ to me. It seems like they want to create the perfect game. I think they keep Bots and stuff in mind.

However Bots dont disturb me much.. the farmbots can be corrupted by players so they break their script , tradechatspammers can be blocked by addons, PvP Honorfarmer are on both sides so no disadvantage here either.

In any case there is always a Hotfix or Patch wich can fix most of the issues. I have faith in the Devs.

One thing I was thinking about the other day, is ArenaNet need to make multi-boxing against the ToS. Since mining nodes are not tagable, someone running 10+ characters would be able to gather 10x the amount of materials compared to a legitimate player. Furthermore, it also will only cost them the 10x the box cost, not $150 a month in fees, so it makes it even more inviting for bastards.

we still dont know how the global auction house is going to effect economy, We also dont know what items will be good to sell on the AH and if those items are farm-able with bots/multi-boxing.

It will drive down prices.
A game economy always inflates demand...but cross server, plus lack of (mostly) stat gear plus lack of competive nodes plus ordering system should rly change it back from a sellers economy to a buyers economy. Plus stuff like The sidekicking etc......ppl getting all lvl crafting items....all these rly lead me to think that bots will be limited

Why would they not allow multiboxing? I don't have a real problem with that since there is still someone controlling them, If some ppl find that enjoying let them be i suppose, also its pretty funny to see a multiboxer running around immo . I just don't see it as a real issue.

Why would they not allow multiboxing? I don't have a real problem with that since there is still someone controlling them, If some ppl find that enjoying let them be i suppose, also its pretty funny to see a multiboxer running around immo . I just don't see it as a real issue.

I don't care if they do it for PvP(but I think GW2's structured pvp won't really allow, you have to split up a lot), but if they do it for farming, meaning atomatisation is used, I'm less inclined to agree with it.

I agree with a ban on multi-boxing. Especially for the node scenario mentioned earlier, and for WvWvW. Ever been in AV and a multiboxing arcane mage one shots you? In WoW PvP at least it was limited by numbers so making it a disadvantage in the long run for the team, but in unrestricted WvWvW it won't be a disadvantage to have a roaming gank squad controlled by one hand since there's no limit on how many players the instance can hold.

I agree with a ban on multi-boxing. Especially for the node scenario mentioned earlier, and for WvWvW. Ever been in AV and a multiboxing arcane mage one shots you? In WoW PvP at least it was limited by numbers so making it a disadvantage in the long run for the team, but in unrestricted WvWvW it won't be a disadvantage to have a roaming gank squad controlled by one hand since there's no limit on how many players the instance can hold.

Sure a roaming gank squad vs an army. I wonder who wins. Also, the maps are huge you would have to be very unlucky to run into this by yourself. And if you know where they are, then avoid that area and help the battle another way, such as disrupt supply lines, take a smaller objective. In things like AV it was a pretty clear cut way of winning, but in WvWvW its a thousand little things.

Who says this guy will be by himself either? Sure there will be roaming parties of people that are coordinated but if you think WvWvW won't have it fair share of people that join just for a few Lulz to run around causing mayhem anyway they can than you are dellusional. Multiboxing so you can two shot someone is just greifing and no fun for anyone.

OT: im sure as more and more is released about the game there will be some of the answers we seek in a FAQ.

How is it fun? Getting one shot is fun to you? Or are you the asshole ruining everyone's experience?
If you have a multi boxer on your team especially in things like WSG you will lose, they are to limited in what they can do a one trick kill machine pony.
If you are fighting against one even if most likely your team wins its still no fun as you go into battle and are one shot because some guy can afford to play $150 a month for a game.

While multi-boxing could be a problem in GW2, I don't think it'll catch on quite like it has in WoW or be quite as annoying, simply because of the way the combat systems differ. Without targeted/sticky spells like WoW has (that is, with spells being either aimed or proximity-based, not seeking), it'll probably take a little more skill to multi-box effectively, and be a little easier to evade/counter multi-boxers when you do encounter them. That said, obviously 10v1 will still be a pain in the ass, but I wonder how big of an issue it'll really be.

On the other hand, without a subscription fee, multi-boxing will be cheaper, and the extra challenge of multi-boxing without a sticky targeting system may be a draw for some. Time will tell I suppose.

One thing I was thinking about the other day, is ArenaNet need to make multi-boxing against the ToS. Since mining nodes are not tagable, someone running 10+ characters would be able to gather 10x the amount of materials compared to a legitimate player. Furthermore, it also will only cost them the 10x the box cost, not $150 a month in fees, so it makes it even more inviting for bastards.

Guild Wars 1 had something built into the launcher that only allowed one instance of Guild Wars to be open at any time, there was a workaround, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did something similar with GW2, maybe even without the workaround.

On the topic of security I really hope they ship the game with security tokens available right at realease. If not we will see the inevetiable account hacks like the first period of Rift for instance before they got in under control.

There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who dont.

After having discovered the NCsoft and ArenaNet logos at the Vasco booth (a company offering secure login services) I grabbed my chance to get some confirmation. Randy confirmed that they have ‘lined up’ with Vasco to explore the various security options they have to offer. If and what kind of security measures they will eventually implement though are not yet determined.

Vasco is the company that makes the Digipass, also know as the Blizzard authenticator.